Epoch Times, 28 Jan 10: As the U.S.-based Shen Yun Performing Arts Company began its 2010 world tour from the U.S., various cities have begun to witness the spread of the Chinese regime’s propaganda targeting the group. The regime has been utilizing university connections as one of its primary resources for defaming the performing arts company.Just prior to a Shen Yun performance at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia earlier this month, Mr. Sun, an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania in the same city, sent an email through the CSSA (Chinese Student and Scholars Association) mailing list. It contained information about the group’s upcoming performances. Mail recipients noted that within minutes of the posting, a person with the email address weihong311@hotmail.com (“wei hong” literally means “red guard”) replied to the list, with articles defaming Shen Yun. The articles were directly copied from the Chinese Consulate’s Web site, defaming Shen Yun and urging recipients not to attend. The person had opted not to use a university email address, and no such person was found to have an affiliation with the school.
The Chinese Student and Scholars Association at Penn (CSSAP) is one of the schools in the CSSA network whose head sponsor is the Chinese Consulate General of New York. This connection is listed on its Web site, which posts as its motto the words of Mao Zedong: “Serve the People.” Chinese Consulates have also sent out messages through the CSSA system, saying that if overseas Chinese view Shen Yun performances, they will have trouble returning to China . . .
. . . According to an investigative report on the Chinese regime’s control of overseas Chinese by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong: “At present, 90 percent of the 30 million overseas Chinese immigrants and their descendants have adopted citizenships from their residing countries (are foreign national Chinese). But the Chinese Communist regime never let go of its grip to control these Chinese immigrants, or ways to transform their ideology. They exploit and utilize them to expand the Chinese Communist sphere of influence in international society.”
The report also stated, “Under the leadership of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council and with the cooperation of the Department of Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the regime has established a Chinese immigrant political strategy and procedures that specifically targeted the overseas Chinese. They have conducted systematic, long-term deceptive propaganda and indoctrination of Chinese communist ideological concepts.
The CSSA (Chinese Student and Scholar Association) is an international organization with chapters on campuses of higher education. CSSA chapters usually maintain a close association with Chinese consulates. There are at least 109 affiliate CSSA groups across the U.S. “How China’s Diplomatic Missions Control and Use Overseas Chinese Students” reports on how the regime utilizes students to disseminate information worldwide. The article begins with a blog from a Chinese student, who describes the CSSA in this way: “It is said that each CSSA chapter is a non-political organization, but each is in fact very much politically oriented, and necessarily so. The Consulate provides funding and resources to each CSSA, which amounts to tremendous assistance, for this resolves all financial worries the student organization might otherwise have. However, our sense is that the Consulate exercises influence in still other, more significant, manners.”
On the matter of those who work to further the regime’s goals abroad, Mr. David W. Szady, former Counterintelligence Executive for the FBI, had this to say: “There are 150,000 students from China. Some of those are sent here to work their way up into the corporations…” He also said, “We now see almost all of the adversaries [of] the Chinese being a classic example, of using students, delegations, researchers, visitors and false-front companies.” . . . .
In the West, Chinese Student Groups Push the Party Line: Part I – Chinese students group acting as fronts for Chinese Communist Party (Epoch Times, 27 Jan 10)
With China’s reform and opening up, thousands of students have streamed overseas to study at Western universities. Evidence and suspicion has been growing, however, that while they are in the West, many have not adopted Western values, and are instead acting as front groups that further the interests of the Chinese Communist Party abroad. While the groups carry out typical student association type functions, evidence suggests that a clandestine aspect of their duties includes acting as subordinates to local Chinese consulates.
“Provisional Regulations Regarding Work on Overseas Students,” a document published by China’s State Education Commission, states that doing a “good job” with overseas students is an important task for Chinese embassies and consulates. This equates to managing the activities of overseas students while they are abroad—in ways that few would suspect. . . .
. . . .Former agents of Chinese intelligence services have said that CSSA members do the sort of work that consulates are unable to. On record, there are at least 109 CSSA groups in the United States. Much like the role played by the state-run Xinhua News Agency in mainland China, student and scholar associations monitor overseas Chinese abroad and report back on developments; at the same time they promote CCP propaganda in their overseas countries, and where necessary, sow seeds of dissent.
In more extreme cases, Chinese agents have stolen information from the intelligence communities of other countries. The CCP is known to keep close tabs on the CSSA members it utilizes. Chinese Consulates hold regular meetings to discuss overseas Chinese they have concerns about. CSSA contacts and those from other groups dispatched by the consulates are required to report back to them once a month.
A Chinese agent in Belgium defected to the West in 2005, testifying that the CSSA system is in essence the “front organization” of an espionage network that for two years had been monitored by the Center for Strategic Intelligence and Security in Europe. The secret agent was a member of the Louvain University CSSA in Belgium. He had studied and worked in Europe for ten years. He reported to the Belgian government detailed espionage activities of hundreds of Chinese agents in the European business community. He said the Chinese spy network that spans all of Europe utilizes the CSSA infrastructure as a cover. Its main tasks focus on securing industrial and economic intelligence, as well as collecting information on dissidents. Reporting is then made to Beijing and the CCP’s Ministry of Public Security. . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 207–PRC Intelligence Services: Operations and Methodologies
TC Palm, FL, 8 Dec 09: A decade-old legal battle launched by members of a once-close Palm City family torn apart by million-dollar financial disputes, arson and industrial espionage is back in court with a new jury seated Monday to pick up where a 2004 jury left off.
Five years ago, a Martin jury found that in 1998, Port St. Lucie plastics manufacturer Premiere Lab Supply stole a machine and its design — considered trade secrets — from Chemplex Industries, a rival Palm City business founded by Monte Solazzi that uses a thin plastic film to make medical and industrial sample cups and containers.
This jury will determine damages owed to Chemplex.
The machine thief, court records show, was Solazzi’s son-in-law, Anthony Norelli, who worked for Chemplex until Solazzi in 1998 terminated him and sales manager Donato Pompa.
According to court records, Norelli and Pompa established Premiere in part by using the production machine stolen from Chemplex, and soon after began luring away hundreds of thousands of dollars in business from Chemplex. . . . .
TMC Net/Kevin Coleman, 7 Dec 09: Biotechnology is one of the fastest growing new sectors in the U.S. economy. Billions of dollars has been poured into biotech research and these investments will continue. The product of biotech research is really information that is turned into products, treatments and insights that drive value and revenues.This massive investment is at risk. International espionage activities have targeted the biotech industry with their eyes on data from later stages of research.
Security experts estimate that theft of intellectual property from U.S. companies exceeds $200 billion a year. However, the figure could be significantly higher since most organization do not publically disclose security breaches that result in the theft of research data or other sensitive information. A comprehensive data breach analysis and report, based on a four-year history of data breaches in the U.S., suggests that incidents may be under-reported by a factor of 100 times. . . . . .
FBI press release, 3 Dec 09: A federal indictment was unsealed today charging Michael Hummel, age 35, of Saline, MI, with wire fraud and theft of trade secrets from his former employer, Quicken Loans Inc. (“Quicken”), announced United States Attorney Terrence Berg. Mr. Berg was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division.
As alleged in the indictment, from February 2005, until November 2006, Hummel was employed at Quicken as a Senior Web Developer and Sr. Software Engineer, working on the Web Interaction Team at its offices at Livonia, Michigan, or from his residence.
According to the indictment Hummel allegedly stole a Quicken proprietary project. The project was a computer operating framework which supported its websites and their public interface; specifically methods, processes, programs, codes, and commands which caused webpages to load and be displayed on Quicken’s websites for public use. As such, the project allowed Quicken’s websites to operate quickly and efficiently, thereby providing the public with better service on the websites. The project was Quicken’s trade secret and its intellectual property.
The indictment further alleges that beginning in May 2006, while employed by Quicken, Hummel began consulting with another company to create websites for it; in doing so, he illegally stole Quicken’s trade secrets and intellectual property. Hummel then used them to help the other company build its websites. Quicken was based in Livonia, Michigan, and sold financial products to the public, including residential mortgages and loans. Quicken offered its products to the public by websites and other forms of advertising.
Quicken maintained a Web Interaction Team whose members (including Hummel) worked to improve its websites, including the interface between the portions of its websites which the public would see and use (the website’s front end) and the data which Quicken used to support its websites (the website’s back end).
United States Attorney Terrence Berg said, “Protecting the competitive edge technology of our companies through vigorous enforcement of our federal trade secret laws is a top priority of this office. Both employees and employers should be aware that stealing proprietary trade secrets to gain an economic advantage is a serious federal offense that will be prosecuted aggressively.”
Special Agent in Charge Arena stated, “Southeastern Michigan is an area of innovation and protecting proprietary information priority for the FBI. The United States government put a priority on protecting intellectual property and the FBI will continue to aggressively pursue allegations involving the theft of trade secrets.”
Conviction on the charge of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets carries a maximum penalty of ten years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. The count charging wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of twenty years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The indictment is a result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Varner.
Washington Times/Inside the Ring, Bill Gertz, 26 Nov 09: Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair is visiting Beijing this week to take part in a secret ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of two U.S. electronic eavesdropping posts in western China.
The Cold War listening posts were aimed at the Soviet Union and now spy on Russia, and they represented the most substantive yet secret sign of the strategic gambit launched during the Nixon administration of using the so-called “China card” to counter the Soviets.
The eavesdropping posts are located in remote western Xinjiang province near the towns of Qitai and Korla, and they remain a closely held electronic spying program.
The New York Times first disclosed the existence of the two listening posts in June 1981, reporting that they had been set up under a 1979 agreement and opened in 1980. The facilities focused their electronic sensors on Soviet missile tests carried out from bases at Leninsk, near the Aral Sea, and at Sary-Shagan, near Lake Balkhash.
The posts also were promoted by then-Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat and now vice president, as needed for verifying compliance with Soviet-U.S. arms control treaties.
The joint spying program includes China’s military intelligence section, which agreed to provide personnel for the sites, along with some CIA technicians, as part of the 1979 agreement. The agreement called for total secrecy about the operation.
Despite decades of CIA involvement, CIA Director Leon E. Panetta did not attend the Beijing ceremony. A CIA spokesman declined to comment, citing a policy of not discussing travel by the director. A DNI spokeswoman also declined to comment. Local press reports from India and Pakistan said Mr. Panetta was visiting those countries.
The listening posts helped replace electronic listening posts aimed northward from Iran that were lost after the 1979 Iranian revolution.
A former intelligence official familiar with the program said the Chinese posts in recent years have been largely symbolic because they cost tens of millions of dollars to maintain and produce little in the way of strategic intelligence. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continued sensitivity of the program.
Some in Congress have questioned the utility of funding the posts after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. However, U.S. intelligence officials have defended the program as a positive sign of Chinese military and intelligence cooperation in an otherwise contentious relationship.
Chinese Space Espionage
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s annual report for 2009 highlights China’s aggressive espionage and intelligence-collection activities, including two cases in which China illegally obtained U.S. space technology.
Disclosure of the Chinese space spying comes as President Obama, in a joint statement with Chinese President Hu Jintao, recently called for greater cooperation in space.
The China commission report states that “China is the most aggressive country conducting espionage against the United States, focusing on obtaining U.S. information and technologies beneficial to China’s military modernization and economic development.”
A Chinese Embassy spokesman could not be reached for comment, but embassy spokesman Wang Baodong earlier dismissed the report’s spying charges as “baseless.”
The commission report reveals two cases of industrial espionage by China that boosted Beijing’s space program:
The first involved Quan-Sheng Shu, owner of a company called AMAC International Inc. in Newport News, Va., who worked as a contractor for the Energy Department and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Shu pleaded guilty in November 2008 to violating the Arms Export Control Act and bribing Chinese officials. He was sentenced to 51 months in prison.
Shu illegally exported to China a cryogenic fueling system for space-launch vehicles and technical data for a liquid hydrogen tank and cryogenic equipment.
“The items exported by Shu were intended to assist in the design and development of a cryogenic fueling system for space launch vehicles to be used at a heavy payload launch facility located on the southern island province of Hainan, PRC,” the report says.
The facility at Hainan is “affiliated with the PLA and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology and is expected to be a launch site for space stations and satellites, manned space flights, and future lunar missions.”
The second case involved an purported export to China’s space program by Jian Wei Ding and Kok Tong Lim, both of the company FirmSpace Limited, a Singapore-based import-export firm. An indictment also named Ping Cheng, a New York resident and sole shareholder of FirmSpace. The three men were indicted in federal court in Minnesota last year for a plan to sell carbon fiber material, with applications in aircraft, rockets, spacecraft, and uranium enrichment, to the China Academy of Space Technology. The case is pending.
NASA spokesman Michael Braukus said details about the reference to increasing U.S.-China joint space cooperation in the statement issued after the Beijing summit are still being worked out, including possible exchange visits by NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden and China’s space agency director focusing on joint human space flight work.
So far, U.S.-China cooperation has been limited to two working groups that were set up in 2007, he said, and there has been little progress.
The Bush administration curtailed space cooperation with China after China’s January 2007 anti-satellite missile test that created a large field of orbiting space debris that threatens both unmanned satellites and manned spacecraft.
